NO GOING BACK ON MARIJUANA, VOWS AKEREDOLU …YOU LIE, SAYS NDLEA

·        The collaboration of my government with the NDLEA is an indication of Federal Government’s consent to the cultivation of the crop in the state –Akeredolu

·     The said collaboration is far from the truth. At no point did I make any remark in favour of the commercial and medicinal value or monetary gain of cannabis –NDLEA Chairman

·   My government would aim to take advantage of the commercial and medicinal value of the plant to create jobs for the youths in the state –Akeredoolu

·  Nigeria’s stern opposition to legalising cannabis as restated at the Commission on Narcotic Drugs’ round-table talks in March 2019 still subsisted – NDLEA Chairman

Executive Governor of Ondo State, Southwest Nigeria, Arakunrin Oluwarotimmi Akeredolu. 

Those who predicted that the Executive Governor of Ondo State, Southwest Nigeria, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu would draw blank with the Federal Government on his proposed official cultivation and processing of cannabis (marijuana) by his government, may have been vindicated after all.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA has said it had no plans to grant permission to Ondo State Government on its plan to grow cannabis sativa, which Akeredolu had said would be for medicinal purpose or economic gain. To further underscore its opposition to the plan, NDLEA had gone ahead to destroy about 3,900 hectares of cannabis sativa in Ondo State.

There have been reports of a joint trip made by the governor and the  Chairman of NDLEA to Thailand  last week, for a programme on ‘Medicinal Cannabis Extract Development, and “to learn how to grow cannabis sativa for economic gain.”

“The Ondo State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, and I did not go to Thailand to learn how to grow cannabis sativa for economic gain, as being reported in some quarters,” Col. Muhammad Abdallah (retd), NDLEA Chairman stated on Monday.

At the programme, Akeredolu was reported as saying his government would aim to take advantage of the commercial and medicinal value of the plant to create jobs for the youths in the state. He also used the occasion to appeal to the Federal Government to support the growing of cannabis in large quantities in his state.

“Indian hemp business would help boost the state Internally Generated Revenue,” he was quoted to have said, adding that the collaboration of his government with the NDLEA was an indication of Federal Government’s consent to the cultivation of the crop in the state.

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Speaking on behalf of the state government earlier, the Commissioner for Information Yemi Olowolabi, had disclosed that the state government was in the process of legalizing cannabis cultivation in the state.

Hear him: “We are still at the elementary stage of this matter. Before we legalise cannabis growing in the state, it has to pass through certain procedures and we have begun the procedures. The assistance we seek from the Federal Government is the collaboration we already have with the NDLEA, which is an agency of the government. Since we are dealing with the NDLEA, we are dealing with the Federal Government.”

But in a swift reaction to this, the NDLEA boss has debunked the collaboration, saying their visit to Thailand was not to advocate cannabis cultivation, adding that Nigeria’s stern opposition to legalising cannabis as restated at the Commission on Narcotic Drugs’ round-table talks in March 2019 still subsisted. He noted that the said collaboration was far from the truth, that at no point did he or his agency make any remark in favour of the commercial and medicinal value or monetary gain of cannabis.

Here’s what he said: “My attention has been drawn to the misinformation that the Ondo State Governor and I were in the Republic of Thailand to learn how to grow cannabis sativa for medicinal purpose or economic gain.

“The purpose of the visit to Thailand is to understudy how the country has successfully migrated some of her citizens hitherto engaged in illicit plant cultivation to the cultivation of legitimate economic crops and other lawful businesses.

“The NDLEA under my leadership has been consistent in our opposition to legalisation and decriminalisation of cannabis. For example, Operation Thunderstorm undertaken by the Ondo State Command of the NDLEA destroyed 3,900.73 hectares of cannabis sativa planted in forest reserves.”

The governor has been widely criticized over his proposed policy on legalizing cannabis in the state. And now that an agency of the Federal Government’s saddled with drug related matters has debunked any collaboration or permission, the waiting game over who blinks first may have just begun.

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